


coal to diamonds

by nebulasong



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Frozen 2 (2019) Spoilers, Insecurity, Post-Canon, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22423594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulasong/pseuds/nebulasong
Summary: Elsa spends most of her days in the Enchanted Forest. She spends most of her nights in Arendelle.The rest, she spends seeking.
Relationships: Anna/Elsa (Disney)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 94





	coal to diamonds

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's a bit late for a post-frozen 2 fic (are spoiler tags still needed?), but you never know when the feels hit.

Elsa spends some of her days in the Enchanted Forest. She spends most of her nights in Arendelle.

It’s not a big journey when you’re her, with her powers, her ways of bending the world around her to suit her needs, and even if it was, well. She’d happily cross any sea to stand near Anna.

Anna, who is growing into her role so well. She comes into the room every night bursting with excitement, glowing. She still asks Elsa questions, clarifications, and Elsa lightly drags her hand through Anna’s hair, explains in a soft voice, mind a repeat of _you’re a worthier queen than I could ever be_. Something she doesn’t voice. She knows Anna would object to it, vehemently at that.

But Anna is pure spring, flowers bloom beneath her step. The sun comes out just to smile at her. Elsa is her powers, she’s ice, she’s snow. A veil, obscuring the beauty underneath, hiding the flowers, dying under the smile of the sun.

So she comes, comes to steal some of Anna’s warmth, some of Anna’s worth. It’s a routine, as much as their lives can provide them with that.

  
❆❆❆❆

  
She’s drawing across Anna’s back one night, first with her fingers, then chasing them with a paintbrush. The jar of body paint is on the nightstand, an ochre color to stand against the silver of the moonlight in the room.

“They don’t take me seriously,” Anna whispers from beneath her.

Else halts. “Anna?”

She can hear her breathe deeply. “The advisors, the council. They don’t take me seriously,” Anna says. “I love doing this, honestly. I love Arendelle. I love its people. But I think they trusted you as a leader more. I’m too…” She trails off. “Wild. Uninhibited, I don’t know.”

“Anna,” Elsa repeats, softly this time. It’s funny, to be considered the better leader when she holds the powers she does, when she was as scared as she was. Elsa wants to drape herself over her sister’s back, but the paint isn’t dry yet, so she settles for gently touching her shoulder. “I trust in you as a leader the most. I can talk to them-”

“No,” Anna interrupts her. “No, no, no. I don’t want you to talk to them, that’s the point. I want to prove myself! I just don’t know how.”

“Okay. Okay.”

“They say it’s because of the dam incident. They think I’d put Arendelle in danger willingly.”

“Would you?”

Anna jolts so hard Elsa almost falls of her, and off the bed. “Of course not! How could you ask that?”

“It was rhetorical, I know you, Anna. I gave you my position for a reason.” She bends down, nuzzles behind Anna’s ear. “It’s because I know you could do amazing things.”

  
She leaves by morning.

❆❆❆❆❆

She visits other places, sometimes. Uses Nokk, uses sleighs, uses carriages. As far as the weather, as nature, as the gods allow. Elsa knows there must be other people like her, other bridges, there’s no way she’s the only one.

She looks for a shine where there shouldn’t be any, a glimmer, a fire burning beneath the surface of a lake, anything. She can’t just ask people, but she knows this isn’t something you hide. She yearns for an understanding that comes from beyond her roots, as grateful as she is to everyone around her.

She finds nothing, every time. She returns to everything, every time.

  
❆❆❆❆❆

  
Elsa dreams less when she’s around Anna. When she can slot her body behind hers, when she can lace their fingers together, her worries lessen. Dissipate.

Anna shakes her awake in the middle of the night.

“What is it?” Elsa asks, sleepily.

“If I asked, would you stay?”

Oh. Now she’s more awake. “Stay where?”

“Here, with me. I don’t get why we can’t both be queens.”

“That’s not how it works. That’s not how it can work.”

“Why not? We’re sisters, we’re related, they can’t ask. They don’t need to know… They don’t need to know anything! And everyone would stop questioning me,” Anna says. “Come on, Elsa. We’re a dream team.”

Elsa stares at her. Anna stares back. “Go back to sleep, Anna.” She turns on her other side, and she can hear Anna huff behind her. 

Sleep doesn’t take her, and she leaves before morning.

  
❆❆❆❆❆

  
_Magic makes people feel too powerful, too entitled. It makes them think they can defy the will of a king._

Elsa disagrees with Grandpa Runeard on multiple accounts. She disagrees with this one, too, normally; magic only enhances the life of those who don’t abuse it. Just this once, maybe she can see a partial truth in his words, because this is what she’s doing. Defying the will of a queen and running away, longing for… Something. 

Magic enhances, so why aren’t there more people who see it? Who use it? 

She goes further up North this time and finds nothing.

  
❆❆❆❆❆

  
Anna visits her in Ahtohallan barely a few hours after she’s returned.

❆❆❆❆❆

  
“Write me letters, when you go,” Anna tells her, one of Elsa’s hands held between two of her own. 

Elsa smiles. “Do you miss me?”

“Of course I do, you fool. Who else is going to accidentally freeze my favorite dress?”

Elsa can feel her smile widen. “I miss you too.”

“What are you looking for, out there?”

“Others. Other people like me. I can help them, if I find them.”

Anna lets one hand go, brings it up to her cheek. “Look at me,” she says. “You can help them? Or they can help you?”

Elsa fights to look away. Anna’s fingers grip too tightly on her jaw.

She lets go, after a while. Elsa gets up, lets the door softly click closed behind her.

  
❆❆❆❆❆

  
Those words show up in her thoughts more than she’d like to admit. She’s going south this time, on a boat, the sun falling on her, rays reflecting on the water.

She finds nothing.

  
❆❆❆❆❆

  
On her way back, she heads straight for Arendelle. From its port she heads straight for the palace, pausing only to talk to some of the people bowing respectfully at her.

She doesn’t knock on the door. Maybe she should have, because Anna is at the end of the stairs, absorbed in conversation with one of the staff, coordinating for the next ball. It’s in less than half a turn of the moon. Elsa looks at her sister and feels pride swell around her. It grips her heart tight and it also sets it free.

Anna notices her and pauses mid-sentence. “Elsa!” She exclaims. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

Elsa smiles at her. Nods at the event coordinator, who bows respectfully and scatters out of the room. “Hey.”

“What brings you here?”

“Wanted to see how you were doing. And,” she pauses, “help with palace matters, if you still want help. None of the two queens stuff, though.”

She can see Anna stifle a squeal. “I knew you’d come along!” She grabs Elsa by the shoulders, kisses her cheek. Elsa takes a moment to look, admire Anna’s heart and Anna’s beauty and Anna’s confidence, then gives a kiss back, on the lips.

Snow is a veil, only if you don’t know how to look at it in itself. Anna does. By helping each other, holding each other up, maybe Elsa will learn as well.


End file.
